Chapter 45 - Roy the Mountain Man
The next morning, Roy got up, put on his caribou shirt and pants, carefully put on his boots, tied the laces, then stood up. The moosehide gave a surprising amount of traction - much more than he remembered from the last pair of leather moccasins he owned. Roy got out his signal mirror to take a look at himself. He looked like Grizzly Adams or Jeddadiah Smith - All he needed was a coonskin cap. Wait a minute - he had one better, he had a wolverine skin sitting around collecting dust. Roy quickly picked up the Wolverine Skin (with the tail still on), laid the skin on top of his head, and the skin was almost twice as big as his head. Roy knew that anyone from the lower 48 that saw him with it on would tell him where the closest Mental Health facility was, but what the heck - the only creature that could laugh at him was Oliver.
Roy sat down to design his wolverine fur hat, but he needed an elastic gather to do the style he wanted - then he remembered he had a spare Ace bandage in his kit - he’d packed 3 and he wasn’t going to need all of it for this project. This was going to take a while. Roy set the hide on his head again, and took the mirror to note where he wanted the cap to end so it would work best. Then Roy got the brilliant idea about ear flaps. Since he had extra hide (it came down to his nose in front, and way past his ears on the side) he would make a different style, and he wouldn’t need the elastic to hold it on, since the hide on the sides and back would conform to his skull. Roy took a piece of string, measured from his eyebrow ridge, along the crown of his head, to the base of his neck, then transferred those marks from the tail of the wolverine hide forward, to set the front to back of the hat. Next he measured from the bottom of his left ear, over the top of his head, to his right ear, and transferred that measurement to the skin. This would give him the width of the hide he’d need. All he ‘d have to do is cut the opening for his face in the front, then the whole hide should fit like a stocking cap with much better coverage.
Roy cut a big oval out of the skin to the marks he made, stretched the skin over his head, and it was a total disaster. He forgot a stocking cap was made out of elastic and yarn, not Wolverine hide. Maybe there was hope yet, if he could get the bottom of the hide to …Nah - that won’t work either. How the heck did mountain men make their caps?
Roy put the whole project on hold when he remembered he had a parka with a HOOD and he didn’t NEED a wolverine fur hat. He even had a Balaclava in his parka’s inside pocket. Roy started to laugh, then thought, “If I was going to screw something up, at least it wasn’t something that was going to kill me. Now that I’ve got that out of my system, everything should be OK.” So Roy decided to be the Hatless Mountain Man - come to think of it, he didn’t see Grizzly Adams wearing a hat a lot… but then that was Hollywood, and the guy playing Grizzly Adams was just an actor. I wonder what Jim Bridger would have felt?
Roy put on his parka, pushed open the door, let Oliver out, and carefully walked to the outhouse. Roy was amazed at the traction these soles gave him on snow, and his feet weren’t even cold. Roy opened the outhouse door, lit the candle, took care of business, was going to step outside, thought better of it, looked down, and sure enough, Oliver had left another frozen yellow puddle. “OLIVER!!! WHERE ARE YOU?” When Oliver walked around the corner, he was looking at Roy like “Who Me?” Roy carefully stepped over the frozen puddle, walked into the cabin, grabbed the snow shovel, chopped the yellow ice out of the ground, and threw it into the trees. Roy walked back into the cabin, and Oliver followed, not even looking at Roy, walked over to his blanket and laid down. Roy guessed Oliver knew he was in the doghouse. Roy walked over to Oliver, sat on the bed, and slowly reached down to pet Oliver, saying “It’s OK, no harm - no foul!” Oliver’s ears perked up, Roy started petting him, and Oliver rolled over for Roy to scratch his belly. Roy gave Oliver a thorough belly scratching, then put some wood on the fire, took off his parka, and picked up his Bible to continue reading in the book of John. Later that evening, Roy gave Oliver a piece of dried fish, and Roy ate a piece of jerky, then they went to bed.
Chapter 46- Roy Checks his Snares
The next morning, Roy got up, got dressed quickly because the cabin was cold, but at least the wind had died down. Roy stoked the fire, and added a bunch of wood, poured some water for tea, grabbed a piece of moose jerky for him and a piece of dried salmon for Oliver, who by this time had decided since Roy had food, he’d better get up. Roy added his tea blend to the now hot water and let it steep. When it had cooled to a safe temperature, Roy poured it into his mug, and sipped it while he ate his jerky. When he was finished, he opened the door, and the storm had stopped, but the snow was deep. Roy was glad he had the snowshoes. Roy quickly filled the water pot with snow to melt, slipped on his snowshoes, and refilled the indoor woodpile from the farthest woodpile. Roy was worried about how fast he was going through his wood supply, he’d almost used up his farthest woodpile, but he had 2 more even larger woodpiles closer to the cabin door, and a huge pile he was using for a windbreak that he could use if he had to.
Roy kicked off his snowshoes on the porch, slid on his shoulder holster, clipped on his fanny pack, put his parka, stocking cap and gloves back on, then went outside to put his snowshoes back on. Roy whistled for Oliver, who lumbered through the deep snow to Roy’s side. Roy turned to face his first snare location, and walked out into the woods to check his snares. There was a big snowshoe rabbit at the first snare, so Roy untangled the frozen rabbit carcass from the snare, re-set the snare over the rabbit trail, and went on to his next snare. It was empty, so he made sure it was well-set, and adjusted it slightly. He walked on to check his other snares, and some were empty, but some had rabbits in them. Roy wondered why he didn’t catch any more squirrels, but then he remembered reading something about squirrels hibernating for the winter. Roy finished checking his line when Oliver growled.
Roy quickly unzipped his parka, grabbed his 22/45 and pulled it out of the holster. Roy looked around, but he didn’t see anything, but one look at Oliver told him things weren’t good. Oliver’s neck fur was standing on end, and Oliver was showing his teeth. Roy looked where Oliver was looking, but he still didn’t see anything. Whatever it was, Oliver must have smelled something, since Roy didn’t see it. Roy crouched down to pick up the rabbits, slung them over his shoulder, but kept the 22/45 in his hand. Roy walked away from the edge of the woods, heading into the clearing so if something decided to push its luck Roy would have a better chance of seeing it first. As he slowly walked away from the woods, Roy kept looking at Oliver, who was following along, but hadn’t calmed down much. Roy got to the middle of the clearing, when he heard Oliver growl, and as he turned to investigate, he saw something that could have been a Bobcat or Lynx. Oliver turned to face the threat, and Roy thought he’d better get in the first shot before Oliver got hurt, dropped the rabbits, got a good steady two-handed grip on the pistol, and put the crosshairs on the head of the lynx, cleared the safety, and squeezed the trigger. There was an audible pop, then the Lynx flipped over in midair, landed on its back with its head blown out. Roy thought “Not bad for a rookie” and holstered his gun, zipped up his parka, and picked up the now very dead lynx. Oliver walked over to sniff the carcass, and was satisfied it was dead, so he calmed down. Roy hoped there wasn’t anything else in the woods, because his hands were full. Luckily, Roy could see the cabin, and they were only about 100 yds away. Roy trudged trough the deep snow, and finally made it to the cabin. When he got onto the porch, he stepped out of his snowshoes, and carried the lynx and the rabbits to the table to skin and gut them. Oliver was going to eat well today. Roy took a couple of hours to skin and gut the rabbits and lynx, then Roy put all the entrails into Oliver’s bowl, and Oliver chowed down.
Roy took the good pieces of meat, and added them to his Dutch oven with some greens and the cattail tubers, then he added 2 quarts of water and a Ramen seasoning packet. Roy put the pot onto the fireplace hook, and swung it over the fire to cook. Roy picked up his Bible, sat on the bed, and continued reading in the Book of John. When Oliver was done eating, he walked over to the bed, and stared at Roy until he noticed him. Roy set his Bible down as Oliver nuzzled up to him, and Roy petted Oliver for a while. Oliver was one happy wolf. He had a full belly, a warm shelter from the storm, and a boss that gave the best belly rubs in the Yukon. After a while, Oliver laid down on the bearskin rug and went to sleep. Roy continued reading his Bible for a while, got undressed, and went to bed.
Chapter 47 - Roy makes Arrowheads
The next morning, Roy woke up, got dressed, stoked the fire, ate breakfast and made some tea; then put on his parka, opened the cabin door for Oliver, who ran around the corner and dove into the snowbank in his haste to get outside. Roy decided to use the outhouse as well, checked for patches of yellow ice in his path, and the coast was clear. Roy opened the outhouse door, lit the candle, took care of business, blew out the candle, checked outside the outhouse door, then stepped down onto the snow. His moccasins gave him almost as much traction as his sorrels, so Roy walked around the corner to carry a load of wood into the cabin, grabbed a load of wood, and carried it into the cabin and filled up the woodpile. Roy refilled the water pot with snow, and kept refilling it as the snow melted.
It started snowing again, so Roy decided today was going to be an indoor day. Roy looked through his stuff, found a big glass-like rock that he’d picked up months ago, then looked for the caribou antler he’d saved, and he found it in the bottom of the pile. Roy took a scrap of leather, and using the saw on the Gerber Multi-tool, sawed a 6 inch piece off the antler tip, and another 6 inch piece from where it attached to the skull. Roy now had tools to try flintknapping. Roy had never tried this before, but had read about it on the Internet, so he was a little apprehensive, but thought the worst case scenario would be a rock busted into useless shards. Roy set the rock into a piece of moosehide to protect his hands and legs from sharp splinters, grabbed the big piece of caribou antler, and struck the edge of the rock with a glancing blow. Roy tried hitting harder, then hitting further into the rock, when finally he heard a crack, and when he checked the rock, a large piece had broken off. Setting the larger piece back on the table, Roy used the moosehide to carefully pick up the shard of rock. The edge looked sharp, and Roy tested it on the moosehide, and it sliced it easily. The piece was about 2 x 3 inches, and roughly oval in shape.
Remembering what he saw on the Internet, Roy took the piece of antler tip in one hand, and the shard in the other, with the moosehide protecting his hand, started shaping the shard into an arrow shape using the tip of the antler to press onto the shard and break a small piece off. It was tough going, and Roy was careful to only apply the pressure necessary to crush the part he wanted to break. Slowly, the arrowhead took shape - it wasn’t a masterpiece by any means, but it did resemble the arrowheads Roy saw on the internet. It was looking like it would be a medium sized arrowhead, suitable for hunting caribou or smaller game.
Roy worked on the arrowhead the rest of the day, and by evening, he’d finished pressure flaking the shard into an arrowhead. Roy was amazed that he could actually do it. Roy set the arrowhead someplace safe so it wouldn’t break or get stepped on, opened the door, and whistled for Oliver. A few seconds later, Oliver came into the cabin, tanked up at his water bowl, then laid down on his bearskin rug. Roy scooped out a large portion of the stew in the pot, said Grace, and ate his dinner. Oliver laid there dreaming away. When Roy finished dinner, he washed his bowl, added some wood to the fire including a large log to keep it burning through the night, then picked up his Bible to finish the Book of John. A couple of hours later, Roy got undressed and went to bed.
The next morning, Roy got up, got dressed and stoked the fireplace, made tea, ate a piece of jerky, then let Oliver out. Roy grabbed his jacket and joined him outside. The weather was clear and cold as Roy made his way to the outhouse. Roy was glad he had packed the snow along his path to the outhouse, because there was a couple more feet on the ground and he would have sank to his waist if he weren’t wearing snowshoes. Roy opened the outhouse door, and as he did, he heard a loud noise, looked up, and a huge pile of snow was sliding off the outhouse roof. Luckily for Roy, the roof worked as designed, and the snow slid off the back, away from him. Roy climbed inside the outhouse, lit the candle, took care of business, blew out the candle, checked outside for any yellow ice, and stepped out into the snow. Roy walked around to his woodpile, and carried an armload back inside the cabin, then refilled the snow pot, and as the snow melted, refilled all his containers, including Oliver’s water bowl. Roy picked up the rock he was chipping flakes from the other day, his antler tools, and the piece of moosehide he was using to protect his hand, then he sat at the table and started trying to knock a large flake off the rock. This time he had more luck, and after a dozen swings, had a good sized flake which he set on the table, and knocked another 6 pieces off the rock in about ½ hour. Roy put the now much smaller rock back, picked up one of the flakes with the moosehide to protect his hand from the sharp flake, and picked up the antler tip to pressure flake the pieces into arrowhead shapes. It took him an hour to do the first one, and about 50 minutes to do each successive one after that.
Roy took a break around lunch and checked on Oliver. Oliver was waiting outside as Roy opened the door, and Oliver strolled inside, and laid down on his rug. Roy opened his food box, and it was still 2/3 full. Roy was glad he was going through food slower than wood, since he didn’t think there were any large game animals within 100 miles. Roy was OK on 2 meals a day, and Oliver was looking fine. Roy took out a piece of smoked salmon, gave it to Oliver, who - being a wolf - wolfed it down. Roy chewed his moose jerky a little more sedately than Oliver, and when he was finished, he started in on flaking arrow points again. By the time evening rolled around, Roy had finished 6 more arrowheads. Tomorrow he was going to work on the bow.
Roy found the piece of wood he had cut down that he thought would make a good bow. It was now dried, but it hadn’t cracked. It was about 8 feet long and about 6 inches in diameter. He thought by the time he whittled it down to size, it would be about 6 feet tall, and about 3 inches at its widest point. Next Roy checked his collection of sinew. He had a couple of long pieces, and he felt he could make an excellent bowstring out of them. Roy was going to wrap the grip in leather and cut notches at both ends to hold the bowstring. The only thing Roy was missing was feathers for fletching. Roy would make the arrows and fletch them in the spring when the larger birds returned. Roy thought about what he’d seen on his topo maps, and remembered something he read about Indians making dugout canoes from large trees. Since he didn’t have the know-how or tools to build a birch bark canoe, he’d have to build a dugout canoe. He knew it would be heavy and awkward, but it beat floating on a raft or walking.
He thought he’d also need a couple of paddles. Roy remembered that tree he cut down to make the snow shovel with. If it wasn’t totally covered in snow, he could make a couple of paddles out of it this winter while he was waiting. He hoped he would remember in the morning. As it grew dark, Roy spooned some of the stew out of the pot, gave Oliver some salmon, said Grace, and ate dinner. After he’d cleaned up after himself, Roy got out his Bible, and decided to finish up the book of John before bed since he only had a few more chapters to go. Roy banked the fire for the night, got undressed, and slipped under the blankets to read his Bible by firelight. As soon as Oliver finished eating, he sacked out on his rug, and was soon fast asleep. Roy read for a few hours, then as the fire started growing dimmer, set the Bible down, rolled over and went to sleep.
Chapter 48 - Roy makes a longbow
Roy got up the next morning, took care of his daily chores, let Oliver out, then started working on his longbow. Roy planned to carve the wood away from the long pole he now had until he had only the heartwood left. He thought it would take him the better part of a week to carve his bow, fashion a leather grip with an arrow rest for it. Roy knew that Traditional Longbows didn’t have a rest, but he wasn’t a Traditionalist, he needed this bow to survive when he ran out of ammo, or to conserve ammo for later, and he couldn’t build a compound bow like what he shot at home. Roy took his bow saw, cut the pole down to a little over 6 feet in length, then taking the axe, carefully chopped the outer wood off the pole. Roy took the rest of the day chopping the wood from the log, trying to keep his blows square so he would have a 3-4 inch thick board when he was finished.
The next time Roy checked, it was getting dark, so he put down his work, opened the cabin door, and called for Oliver. Roy looked towards the woods, and Oliver was bounding through the snow toward home like, “I’m coming - don’t close the door!” Oliver made it to the cabin all out of breath, and staggered in dog tired. Roy filled Oliver’s water bowl, which Oliver promptly drained, so Roy refilled his bowl. Roy then fed Oliver a piece of Salmon, Roy ate a piece of jerky and drank some water. Roy refilled the water pot with snow, and set it next to the fireplace to melt, then added some wood to the fire. Roy opened the cabin door, and Oliver decided he should go outside and take care of business after drinking all that water, Roy walked over to the outhouse to do the same. On his way back, Roy picked up a load of wood out of the woodpile, then carried it inside. Oliver was already laying on his rug when Roy came in. Roy checked the snow pot, and the water had melted, so Roy refilled his water containers, and refilled the water pot with snow to melt. When it got full dark, Roy decided to go right to bed since he was tired.
When Roy woke up the next morning, it was cold, and the wind was howling. “Dang, not another Blizzard!” Roy got dressed quickly, stoked the fire, then tried the door. Roy said a quick prayer of thanks when the door opened easily. For some reason, even though the wind was howling, and the snow was blowing all around, there wasn’t much snow on the porch. Roy looked at the nearby trees, and figured out why - the storm was blowing from the opposite direction as the last one, and the door was on the downwind side of the house. Since he couldn’t see the outhouse, Roy decided to stand off the end of the end of the porch, and relieve his bladder while he could. Oliver trotted out at that minute, and Roy could almost hear Oliver saying “Hey - you do that in YOUR bathroom, you’re in MINE!” Roy quickly pulled his pants up before he froze something off he might need later. Roy decided to forget about the wood, and get back inside where it was warm. Evidently Oliver had the same idea, and they almost collided in the doorway. Roy stopped just long enough for Oliver to get inside, then he walked quickly inside the cabin and closed the door.
Roy threw a couple of logs on the fire, heated some water for tea, fed Oliver some salmon, and ate a piece of jerky while he waited for the water to heat up. When the water was hot, he poured it into his mug and added his tea blend. When it had steeped, Roy sat down and sipped his tea then took the piece of wood and a piece of coal, and drew the shape of the longbow onto the wood. He made the center fat, and the tips thin. He figured about 3 inches at the center, to about ½ inch at the tips. Roy had a brilliant idea that would speed up the process. What if he took the fine saw blade on his Gerber Multi-tool to cut the lines on the wood. He had 6 blades available, so he thought that using one of them would be a good use of a blade. Roy took out his Gerber Multi-tool, opened the saw blade up, and started sawing from the tip to the grip along one side. It took Roy about an hour to completely saw one quarter of the bow, then he flipped the wood over, and started on the other side. Meanwhile Oliver was sound asleep on the rug. Roy kind of envied Oliver’s ability to sleep through anything. Roy resumed sawing, and by dinnertime, Roy had sawn out the blank for his bow. It still needed to be smoothed and shaped, the notches cut, and the grip fixed to the bow.
Roy let Oliver sleep, and scooped out some more stew. It wasn’t half bad, and actually contained vitamins and minerals he needed to keep healthy. Good thing it did, otherwise Roy would just eat jerky, because it never tasted as good as Susan’s cooking. Even with the Ramen flavoring packets, the stew was bland and gamy from the rabbit and other wild meat. When he finished dinner, Roy put a couple of logs on the fire, grabbed his Bible, and sat down to read for a while before going to sleep. He was reading in the Book of John, starting at Chapter 13, how Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus for a paltry sum, then later killed himself in remorse. Roy could relate to Remorse, but remembered the time at his Church’s Summer Camp when he gave his heart to Christ, and how the Pastor told then that God had forgiven all their sins, and realized that God had even forgiven him for not bringing his sons up the way he should have. Roy felt much better when he remembered that, and continued in the book. When he read the part about Peter denying with an oath that he didn’t know Jesus, Roy realized he didn’t really know Jesus either, but he was going to try, and reading the Bible helped, but he needed to spend a lot more time talking to God, and appreciating his surroundings that God had so graciously provided for him.
Roy fell to his knees, crying and praying, when all of a sudden, he thought he heard Angels singing. That couldn’t be right, but he felt he needed to investigate, so he put on his parka, grabbed his snowshoes, and opened the cabin door. The blast of cold air woke Oliver up, and saw Roy was going outside, and grudgingly decided to follow. When Roy got clear of the cabin, and his eyes dark adapted, he saw a beautiful sight. It wasn’t Angels, it was the Aurora Borealis. He’d never seen a more beautiful sight, and stood there for several minutes, awestruck at the sight. The singing he thought he heard was the wind blowing gently through the trees. Roy lifted his hands high, and gave praise to God, “Thank You God! You are so Awesome, and Your Creation is Beautiful beyond imagination!” After a couple of hours, the display started to fade, and Roy realized it was freezing out there. Roy hurried back into the cabin, made some tea to warm up. Oliver rolled back into his blanket. When Roy drank his tea, he put his Bible back up, threw a couple of logs on the fire so it would stay warm for a couple of hours, then got undressed and slid between the bearskin blankets, and went to sleep.
Roy slept in the next morning, and woke up around noon. Oliver was standing next to the door as if he were saying, “Come On Boss, I can’t hold it much longer!” Seeing the look on Oliver’s face, Roy got up and let him out first, then got dressed and went to use the outhouse. It was clear but COLD outside, and Roy’s breath froze on his beard. Roy quickly walked over to the outhouse, opened the door, lit the candle, then broke the world’s record for taking care of the Call of Nature. Roy got dressed quickly, opened the door, blew out the candle, and walked as quickly as he could back into the cabin.
Oliver came bounding around the corner, and almost flattened Roy in his haste to get back inside where it was warm. Roy put a cup of water next to the fire to get hot. When the water was hot enough, Roy poured it into his ceramic mug and added his tea blend. While it steeped, Roy got out a piece of jerky for him, and a piece of dried fish for Oliver. Roy tossed it to Oliver, who caught it in mid-air. Roy drank his tea while he chewed the rest of his jerky. When he had finished breakfast, Roy put his parka on, and went outside to the woodpile to refill his indoor woodpile. Roy then sat down, picked up his SAK, and used the large blade to smooth out the blank for his longbow. He worked on it the rest of the day, and as it was growing dark, Roy set down the bow, scooped up some stew into his bowl for dinner, said Grace, then started eating dinner. For some reason, stew didn’t taste as well the third day, so when he had finished, Roy emptied the rest of the pot into Oliver’s bowl. Oliver got up, sniffed his bowl, then started eating. Obviously Oliver wasn’t a picky eater. After dinner, Roy cleaned out the Dutch Oven with some snow, then cleaned his bowl and utensils. Roy then picked up his Bible, turned to the Book of John, and continued reading. After a couple of hours, Roy was getting tired, so he put up his Bible, got undressed, and went to sleep.
When Roy got up, he let Oliver out, took care of his chores, ate a piece of jerky and drank some tea, then started in on smoothing out his longbow with his Swiss Army Knife. He was slicing paper thin pieces of wood off the bow, shaping and smoothing the surface, and making a graceful curve out of straight line cuts. At the end of the day, he had the final shape of the bow. Now he needed to mount the arrow rest, the grip, and notch the tips to take the string. The first thing he did was to take a large wedge of wood he had sawn off earlier, and cut across it so the cut end was slightly wider than the arrow shaft. Then he took a scrap of moosehide, shaved the hair off of it, and wrapped it around the bow, holding the shelf in place, and providing a grip surface for his hand. He took his needle and tread, and sewed the seam together, since he needed his sinew for other projects. The needlework pulled the leather tightly around the grip, anchoring the shelf very firmly. Roy took a pinch of bear grease from his kit, and rubbed it into the leather to waterproof it and seal it. It was getting late, so Roy opened the front door, whistled for Oliver, who came running in the door. Roy closed the door, and sat down to eat dinner, but first he fed Oliver, then said grace. When he was finished with dinner, he opened his Bible to read for a couple of hours before bed.
The next morning Roy woke up freezing COLD. Roy wrapped the bearskin blanket around his shoulders, got his pants and shirt on, then put his boots on and walked over to check the fire. Good news was he couldn’t hear the wind - the bad news was the fire was Out Cold. Roy needed to light the fire quickly. He fumbled in his pockets for his butane lighter, and some paper thin pieces of wood, then quickly built a small teepee out of kindling. Roy tried lighting the lighter, but it must have been too cold for the butane gas to ignite since the lighter was very cold. Thinking fast, Roy dug into his emergency kit, took out his MFS and his SAK, scraped a small pile of magnesium onto the piece of wood, then turned the MFS over, and forcefully scraped the blade down the length of the ferrochromium rod. A shower of sparks erupted from the rod, and the Magnesium shavings flared into a bright white hot miniature volcano of fire, immediately igniting the wood in the fireplace. While the magnesium still burned, Roy quickly added larger and larger pieces of wood, until he had a nice large fire burning in the fireplace. Roy returned the MFS and SAK to his fanny pack kit, and the lighter back to his pocket, then said a brief prayer of thanksgiving that he had the tools to save his life. The Roy remembered something his Scoutmaster had told him when he was in Boy Scouts - Always have 3 means of starting a fire, and carry tinder that will light 100 percent of the time on your person at all times. Roy re-checked his fanny pack, and the 35mm film can full of Petroleum jelly saturated cotton balls was still there. He’d used a few, but the canister was still 2/3 full, and the petroleum jelly was intact.
Since he was now wide awake and dressed, Roy made tea, ate a piece of caribou jerky just to be different, and woke Oliver with a piece of smoked Salmon. Roy was getting low on fish, but had plenty of jerky and pemmican to last the winter. Oliver finally extricated himself from the bearskin he was rolled up in, ate his breakfast, then trotted over to the door. Oliver looked over his shoulder at Roy like “I’m waiting.” so Roy set down his mug, opened the door, grabbed his parka, and walked over to the outhouse. The outhouse door was stuck, but not badly, so Roy managed to get it open after a brief struggle, then he lit the tallow candle on the shelf inside the outhouse, and quickly did his business, since it was brutally cold outside. Roy got dressed, opened the door, blew out the candle, checked for yellow snow, and since the coast was clear, stepped into the snow, and made a brief detour to the woodpile to carry a load inside. Roy checked the clouds as he walked back to the cabin door, and noticed the clear blue sky, and thought “That’s why it was so COLD this morning - the clouds must have kept the heat close to the earth.” Since his Dutch oven was empty, and he didn’t know what the weather tomorrow would be, he took off his parka, slipped on his shoulder holster and fanny pack, put his parka back on and picked up his snowshoes, and headed off to check his snares. The snow was so deep that he needed his hiking staff to keep upright. This was going to take longer than he thought. Looking down, Roy saw Oliver struggling through the snow to catch up, so Roy waited for Oliver, and when Oliver stopped next to him, Roy reached down and scratched between Oliver’s ears. That done, Roy set off again to locate his first snare. He found the anchor point, but the snare was buried under the snow. Roy followed the wire, and to his surprise, there was a large snowshoe rabbit on the other end. Roy removed the frozen carcass, and relocated the snare higher up out of the snow. Roy guessed this rabbit was caught before the last snowstorm, and got buried after it had died. Roy went to check the rest of his snares, and found a few more rabbits. He had to relocate most of his snares, since the snow had covered almost all of them. When he had finished, Roy turned for home, and Oliver bounded through the snow beside him.
They got back to the cabin about an hour later, and Roy laid the rabbits on the table, threw some wood on the fire, and refilled his water containers, then refilled the snow pot to make some more water. Roy sat down at the table to skin and gut the frozen rabbits, and for some reason, the skin separated easily from the bodies. This had happened the last couple of times, but Roy took no special notice. Roy remembered Susan pulling the skin off frozen chickens, and told him it was easier to do when the carcass was frozen rather than defrosted. Roy finished skinning and gutting the rabbits about an hour later, and as usual, Oliver got the guts in his bowl, and Roy got the meat in his pot, and the fur and sinews in his collection. Oliver pigged out, and soon the bowl was empty, Oliver’s belly was full, and he laid down for a nap. Roy thoroughly cleaned the table, took out his bow and his SAK, and using the smallest blade, cut notches on both sides of the tips to hold the bowstring. Roy tried to make them as round and smooth as he could. As it was growing dark, Roy set the bow down, threw a couple of logs on the fire, and since the stew wasn’t done yet, ate some jerky for dinner. Oliver was already fed, so Roy picked up his Bible when he was finished eating and started reading.
Roy woke up the next morning, and for once he wasn’t cold. The fire was still glowing, and Oliver was laying on his rug instead of rolled up in it. Roy got up, got dressed, added some wood to the fire, which burst into flame as soon as it got fresh fuel. Roy filled his canteen cup with water for tea, grabbed some jerky for Oliver and him, tossed Oliver his piece, and slowly chewed his piece while he waited for the water to get hot. A couple of minutes later, the water was hot, and he poured it into his mug, added the tea, and let it steep. Roy finished eating his jerky, then drank his tea when it had cooled to a safer temperature. Roy picked up his bow, then remembered he had a file on his Gerber Multi-tool, took out his tool, and opened the file. Roy used the file to further smooth the bow until he had smoothed off all the knife marks. When he was finished, Roy closed his Gerber tool and put it back up.
Roy rummaged around his collection of stuff, found all the sinew he had been collecting, and started rolling the longer strands together until he had a piece about ¾ the length of the bow. Roy made loops in the end, and wrapped the ends with thread to keep them for coming undone. Roy hooked the loop over the bottom notch of his bow, then put the bow tip on the floor, and used his thigh to bend the bow and attach the bowstring to the upper notch. Roy carefully released tension on the bow, and the string held. Roy was beside himself - he never thought that it would actually work. Roy pulled the bowstring, and the bow flexed just like it was supposed to. He didn’t pull the string all the way back to his full draw, because you should never take a bow to full draw without an arrow attached to the string, because if your grip slipped, the unencumbered string would whiplash and stress the bow to the breaking point. Roy carefully unstrung the bow, since he wouldn’t be able to use it until he finished his arrows, and he didn’t have feathers for fletching yet.
Roy did have some very straight hardwood sticks he was going to try and make shafts out of. Roy kept the bow out so he could measure the shafts to get the right length. He wanted the obsidian arrowheads well ahead of his hand at full draw so it wouldn’t cut his hand on the draw. Roy held the bow, placed a stick on the rest, and held his hand in the full draw position, and left 3 inches in front of his hand for safety. Roy marked the stick at the correct point, then cut all the other sticks to that length with the saw on his SAK. Next he cut notches in both ends of the shafts to fit the heads, and to act as a nock for the string. Roy knew he was going to lose some accuracy without a modern nock, but he wasn’t going to shoot anything more than 30 yards away anyway.
Roy almost smacked himself on the head when he remembered if he was going to use a bow and arrows, he’d need a quiver. Good thing he had some hides left. He had a log that was about 6 to 8 inches in diameter that he cut a 1 inch thick cross section off to use as a stiffener for the bottom of the quiver. Roy thought he’d use a twig to shape the top opening. Now all he needed was to cut a piece of hide about 6 inches shorter than his arrow shafts, and wide enough to fit comfortably around the wood section. Roy rolled the piece of wood on the hide just to be sure, and cut about 1 inch past the mark. Roy cut a strip of the same hide about 2 inches wide and 4 feet long for the sling to carry it over his shoulder.
Roy double checked his measurements before he cut them, and he lengthened the sling slightly to give him room for a jacket. Roy turned the hide inside out, grabbed a needle and black thread, and started sewing up his quiver. Roy sewed the bottom closed first, then started on the bottom corner, then sewed the rest of the side seam. Roy rolled the top over a thin twig to hold the top open, and stitched the top in place. Roy turned the quiver right side in, and attached the sling at the top and bottom of the seam, sewing several inches to the quiver to make sure it wouldn’t come loose. Roy took the section of wood, and stuck it in the bottom of the quiver to hold its shape. Roy next tied the arrowheads to the shafts with sinew. He stuck the arrowheads into the notches he cut, and tightly wound the sinew around the junction, making sure the sinew stayed inside the notches he had chipped in the arrowheads to secure the sinew. After about a dozen turns, he tucked the wrapping under the previous wrap, and pulled until the sinew snapped. This tucked the end neatly inside the wrapping, and in the spring, he would cement the connection with pine pitch glue. By now it was starting to get dark, so Roy set his project back on top of the pile, opened the door, and Oliver was standing there. Roy thought “How did he know I was going to open the door?” as Oliver walked in and plopped himself down on the rug. Oliver was Dog Tired. Roy scooped up some stew for dinner, and gave Oliver a bowl as well. Master and Wolf chowed down the hot stew. Oliver finished in under a minute, and looked up like his namesake holding up a bowl of thin gruel, and asking “Please Sir, may I have some more?” Roy had way more compassion in his little toe then the Workhouse manager had in his whole body, so he gave Oliver seconds. Roy finished his dinner in peace, and Oliver drank noisily from his bowl of water.
Chapter 49 - Oliver finds a Girlfriend
The morning broke clean and clear, Roy got up, got dressed, stoked the fire, grabbed some jerky for Oliver and him, fed Oliver, and slowly ate his jerky while the water for his tea heated next to the fireplace. When Oliver finished eating, he walked to the door, and Roy let him out. Oliver took off like a shot for the woods, barking like he was having fun as he charged through the deep snow. Roy looked out at Oliver, and saw another wolf in the tree line, it was a black wolf with white markings and bright blue eyes. Oliver ran up next to it, and they started to smell each other like they were friends, so Roy decided everything was OK, and went to use the outhouse and refill the indoor woodpile. Oliver was still playing around with the other wolf as Roy went back inside the cabin to drink his tea.
A couple of hours later, Roy went to go check his snares, and for once Oliver didn’t tag along - Roy thought this was strange, but continued anyway. Roy found 5 rabbits in his snares, and after resetting them, carried his burden home. By now it was late afternoon, and as Roy approached the cabin, Oliver was still frolicking with the other wolf. It finally dawned on Roy that the other wolf was a female - well how about that, Oliver had a girlfriend. Roy suddenly felt sad because he realized that Oliver could abandon him, and he would miss him, but then remembered that God made wolves to live in the wild, and that Oliver belonged with his own kind. Roy wasn’t sure what to do, so he prayed, “God, you gave me Oliver to help me through this trial, I understand that he still is a wild wolf, and belongs with his own kind, so please show me what you want me to do!” As he finished his prayer, he reached the door, and opened it. Without calling him, Oliver and his girlfriend ran over to the cabin, and Oliver introduced Roy to his girlfriend. She was the shy type, and took several minutes to warm up to Roy. Finally she sniffed Roy’s hand, and smelling Oliver’s scent on it, realized that Roy was OK, then they both walked into the cabin. Roy said “Thanks God, looks like I’ve gained another friend!” Roy sat down, and skinned the rabbits, and threw the guts into Oliver’s bowl. Roy put most of the meat into the pot, and since he had some left, added it to Oliver’s Bowl. Oliver let his girlfriend eat first, then he ate the other half. Roy thought about this for a while, and decided that if she were to stay, he’d need to give her a name. Francine was Susan’s middle name, and it kind of suited Oliver’s girlfriend, since she was a real pretty wolf. Roy called to her, and she came over with Oliver, and they both got their ears scratched, then they sacked out together on Oliver’s rug, just giving Roy enough room to get into and out of bed.
Roy looked at his food box, and it was still 2/3 full - the trapping had been good, and he hadn’t hit his jerky too hard. He figured if he was able to keep up trapping, he could afford to feed another wolf. Since the stew wouldn’t be fit to eat until tomorrow, Roy slowly chewed a piece of jerky. Roy thought that this would solve one of his problems - what to do with Oliver when he paddled back to civilization. If Oliver had a family, he’d probably stay here. Since it was past breeding season for wolves, Roy knew he wouldn’t have to worry about raising wolf pups as well. Roy shook his head, then thanked God for solving his problems. He got to keep his best friend, and he would be OK when Roy had to leave. Even if he didn’t stay in Civilization, he had to let someone know he was still alive, and what happened to the pilot.
Roy thought about that for a long time, and realized the Insurance company had probably already paid his sons the proceeds of his life insurance, but the money he could get for his motor home, which was parked in a storage facility in Washington could easily pay for him to buy this piece of land, and pay for years of supplies, even hire a diver to recover his bags, or buy new stuff. Roy had a lot of thinking to do. Meanwhile, he had to survive the winter, and now he had two wolves to keep fed and warm - good thing the winter had been mild so far, and he had all that stored jerky and wood. When he finished eating, Roy picked up his Bible and continued reading. Before he went to bed, he banked the fire and threw a big log in to keep it burning all night.
Chapter 50 - Spring Finally
After 3 months of snow, blizzards, hauling wood, etc. Roy had survived the winter without any major incidents. Oliver and Francine were spending more and more time away from the cabin as the weather warmed and the snow melted. Roy had completed all his projects, and as soon as the snow melted enough for him to walk around without snowshoes, Roy located a large tree that would be suitable for making a dugout canoe. Roy took several days to drop the tree, de-limb it, and drag it over to the cabin after he fashioned a harness to make it easier for him to drag it. Roy finally has the canoe next to the cabin, and he was in the process of figuring the fastest way to hollow out and shape the log into a canoe. Since it was just himself and his meager supplies, Roy decided to make a canoe between 6 and 8 feet long, and to shape the bow so it would rise up instead of dig in if he caught any rough water. Roy used his old saw blade to slice the bark off one side of the log, then built small fires along the centerline to burn out the center of the tree. Roy decided the easiest way to get the canoe to the lake was to use log rollers, so he picked 4 logs about 4 feet long, and 6 inches in diameter to act as rollers. As he shaped the tree into a canoe, it was resting on the logs. Over several days, the fires burned into the interior of the tree, and Roy chopped away the soft coals and shaped the outside of the log into a more canoe-like shape. Roy started with the small axe, and chopped away most of the wood in what would become the bow of the boat, until he had a 3 inch wide bow that gradually tapered back to almost the full width of the log. Roy then shaved the bottom of the bow section to form a hollow that would lift the bow when it struck any rough water.
It took almost a month for Roy to finish the canoe, and the snow had melted, and the lake was free of ice. Roy checked his supply of jerky, and he had over a month’s worth left, and what he figured was a week long trip down the river if he traveled 10 miles a day. The topo didn’t show any rapids, or spots he’d need to get out and portage, so unless he got caught in a snag, or something else happened, he figured it would take about a week to paddle the length of the Helpmejack River, and make his way to the Alatna River, then 80 miles to the town of Allakaket. Roy hoped the SOB that was storing his two hundred thousand dollar motor home hadn’t sold it for storage fees. He left a deposit large enough for 1 year’s storage, and he had about 3 weeks left on that year. Oliver and Francine still stopped by in the evening, but Roy followed them one day, and they had already made a den about a mile away. Roy thought Francine might be pregnant, but he wasn’t sure. Oliver had remembered how to hunt and act like a wolf, and Roy had heard Oliver and Francine howling a beautiful duet during the last full moon. No wonder Oliver complained about his whistling. Compared to Roy, Oliver was as good as Pavarotti. And he could harmonize better than the guys in America!
After another week, Roy was almost finished with his dugout canoe, and walked to the lake to get an accurate bearing to triangulate his position on the map. Roy recognized 2 peaks, got a cross-bearing, and wrote the numbers down, then took his map and compass back to the cabin to figure exactly where he was. Roy drew in the bearing lines he had shot from the landmarks, and they crossed within a mile of where he thought he was - close enough for government work. Roy spent the next day packing all his stuff into waterproof bags, stowing them into the canoe, and lashing them in with the Paracord, then he secured the cabin. The next morning, Roy started pushing the canoe to the lake using the rollers. It was slow but steady, and within an hour, he had made it to the lake. Before he got in, he whistled for Oliver, who came trotting out of the forest. Roy told Oliver he had to go now, but he planned to be back. Roy had thought long and hard about this, realized there was nothing in the Lower 48 he needed, and he was happy here. He had survived the wild, and he never felt more alive in his life. He was going to sell his motor home, and use the money to buy the land he had survived the winter on, buy some provisions and equipment, and come back here as soon as he could. Roy still said a tearful goodbye to Oliver since he didn’t know if he’d ever see him again. Oliver must have understood, since he licked Roy right on the face like “It’s OK boss, we’ll be right here when you get back. I’ll watch the place for you while you’re gone.” Roy gave Oliver a big tearful hug, then he looked up, and Francine was standing in the clearing, and as Roy let Oliver go, Oliver turned as if to say, “Sorry Boss, but the Missus is in a hurry!”
Roy turned away, picked up one of the two paddles he made, slid the canoe into the water, and stepped into the back of the canoe, kneeling on a large pad. Roy remembered the best way to row a large canoe is to kneel towards the back, and do a combination of straight pulls and j-strokes to steer the canoe. Roy looked back one last time, to see Oliver and Francine standing there. Francine turned to Oliver, and gave him a big doggie kiss, and Oliver returned the favor. As Roy paddled away, he couldn’t see the wolves, but he heard a sweet duet howl, and he would have howled in return if he hadn’t remembered that Oliver didn’t think too much of his musical talent. Roy dug in with his paddle, and soon was out of earshot.
Roy established a good paddling rhythm, and soon reached the output of the lake. It was marked as a major stream in Roy’s topo map, but it was behaving more like a minor river due to the spring runoff. It was flowing fast enough that Roy didn’t need any more bow strokes, and just j-stroked to keep the canoe in the center of the stream. An hour later, Roy emerged onto the Alatna River. The current picked up immediately, and Roy spent all his time keeping the canoe in the center of the river. Between the way he balanced the canoe fore and aft, and the way he built the bow, the bow was riding slightly higher in the water than the stern, but the stern wasn’t digging in, which meant that Roy probably had to paddle from a kneeling position for the rest of the trip. When it started to get dark, Roy turned the canoe into the bank where there was a low spot to beach the canoe. Roy ran the canoe up on the shore, and tied the canoe to a tree with some of his Paracord just in case.
Roy had his fanny pack with his knife and hatchet already on, he’d learned his lesson when the plane went down - “If it’s not on you, you don’t have it!” Roy was also wearing his 22/45 in the shoulder holster. He had 100 rounds in his fanny pack, and the rest in his daybag, which was packed in the river bags. Since he didn’t need anything from his river bags, he left them lashed into the canoe, but he checked the lashings just to make sure. Everything was still tight. Roy gathered some wood to make a fire. The river had just flooded and there was plenty of wood along the banks, so Roy had a big pile of wood in minutes. Roy took his Bowie knife and made tinder out of one of the pieces of wood, then took his MFS and shaved a small pile of magnesium shavings onto the tinder, then flipped the MFS over, and struck a huge shower of sparks. The magnesium flared into a huge fire, and Roy quickly added larger and larger pieces of wood until he had a nice fire going. Roy made some tea and ate a piece of jerky from his pack, then wrapped up in his bearskin to sleep.
Chapter 51 - Rolling on the River
At first light, Roy ate a piece of jerky, made some tea, then packed up all his stuff, untied the canoe, and entering on the downstream side to make sure the canoe didn’t get away from him, pushed the canoe into the river and jumped in. Roy picked up his paddle, got into his kneeling position again, and after making sure everything was as it should be and the canoe was balanced, turned the bow of the canoe into the current and set off. Roy made excellent time since the current was flowing fast, and Roy only had to swerve about once per mile to avoid boulders and other obstructions. At the end of the day, Roy estimated he had traveled almost 30 miles that day, and Roy sought out a good beaching site. Roy spotted one ahead, and quickly stroked out of the main current into a slower current, then settled into the relatively calm water ahead of his beaching site. Roy grounded the canoe, jumped out, picked up the bow, and pulled it further on the beach, then tied the canoe to a tree. Roy made a fire, set up camp, ate dinner, then curled up in his bearskin blanket and went to sleep.
Roy was off again at first light, right after he ate and drank some tea. Roy packed what little stuff remained to be packed into the canoe, checked the lashings, untied the canoe from the tree, pushed it off the beach, and jumped in. Roy quickly got into his kneeling position, tested the balance of the canoe, then turned into the main channel and stroked out into the center of the river. At this point, the river was about 150 feet across, and he estimated about 15 feet deep. It must have been glacier fed, because it was COLD. Roy had packed his caribou hide clothes, but he was wearing his jeans, flannel shirt, and had his jacket tied around his waist. As it got colder on the water, Roy stopped paddling, and put on the jacket. Roy resumed paddling just to keep the canoe in the center of the river where it was safest. Roy had to avoid some snags and boulders, but other than that, it was a nice pleasant trip. Roy thought about Oliver, and he hoped that the two wolves were happy. Roy snapped out of his reverie just in time to avoid a huge boulder that was hidden under the water that would have wrecked the canoe. Roy was glad he decided not to run the river at night - he’d never see hidden obstacles like that.
After the close call, Roy paid attention to the river, and noticed it was dropping faster and getting narrower. Roy remembered there weren’t any marked rapids on the river, but that didn’t mean there weren’t any seasonal rapids. As long as they didn’t get too hairy, he could handle it. For the next couple of miles, Roy had to work to keep the canoe upright and away from the rocks. The canoe scraped off a couple of boulders, and fell into several holes, but shot right out. Finally the river widened out and slowed down. Roy took the chance to catch his breath, and drink some water. Roy kept paddling through the fast-flowing but smooth water, and at the evening, found an excellent beaching site. Roy thought the river was flowing at 3-5mph and he had been on the river for 10 hours before he beached the canoe for the night. He should reach Allakaket sometime tomorrow if his numbers were right. Roy made camp, started a fire, ate some jerky, drank some tea, and curled up in his bearskin to sleep until daylight.
Fleataxi
